End of Year Habit Challenge

Can you believe that the end of the year is so close?  It really hit me today when I started listening to Holiday music in my classroom.  Before we know it, the midnight countdown will begin for 2014.  Many people might consider the next month and half to be a time to get relaxed on goal setting and have another slice of pumpkin pie.  But not you and me.  Not these GMG's!  This is the perfect time to take the End of the Year Habit Challenge. If you're just the least bit curious on how to "Carpe Diem" for the rest of 2013, read on...

I've seen different numbers on how many days it takes to establish a habit.  Some say 21 days.  Some say 28 or 30.  Regardless, we're going to use the last 49 days in 2013 to strengthen one habit.  Just one is all it takes to establish some great momentum for the upcoming year.  You can so do this!

Whenever you drop a bad habit, you will always replace it with something else whether that be a better habit, or another bad habit.  Time is a vacuum and whenever you have extra time, you are going to fill it with something.  So this is the challenge:

In the next 49 days, replace one bad habit with one positive habit.

That's it!  It's not too complicated that you can't accomplish it within November and December.  And by January, your old bad habit will be history and your good habit will be firmly established!  How's that for a win-win situation?

I wouldn't challenge you to do something without taking it on myself.  Here's what I am going to do.  A bad habit I have is snacking after dinner.  That's not such a bad thing except that I like to snack all during the day too.  I'm sort of a grazer.  But since I'm trying to get back to my pre-pregnancy weight, the snacking-all-day-thing is not really working with my diet.  So the habit I'm getting rid of is snacking after dinner. I will still allow myself to snack during the day, but I am declaring dinner to be my last food for the day.

Since time is a vacuum, I have to replace the time spent snacking with something else, non-food related.  So my replacement habit is establishing a relaxing bedtime routine with my son. I've decided it's going to be: feed, read, change, and swaddle.  I'll give him his bedtime feeding, then read him one of his books or even the Bible, then change his diaper for the night, and finally swaddle him in his blanket and put him to bed.  Research shows that babies are comforted by the same routine around bedtime.  Not only is this good for him, but it gives me some great bonding time with my son as well!

So have you figured out what habit you are going to replace and what habit you are going to instill in the next two months?  If you're up to the challenge and will commit to being my buddy on this leg of the journey, do me a favor and comment below on your two habits.  Or you can comment on my Facebook link.  I'm really excited to hear from you and find out what good habits you're going to try and which ones you're going to kick to the curb for good!  We're all in this together!